Drug for Spinal Muscular Atrophy Prompts Ethical Dilemmas

December 13, 2017

(Stanford Medicine Magazine) – When the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for people with spinal muscular atrophy a year ago, clinicians finally had hope for improving the lives of patients with the rare debilitating muscular disease. But the extraordinary cost of the drug and complicated logistics of delivering it present barriers for many patients, according to experts in bioethics at the Stanford University School of Medicine.